The Healer
by Triple Six
Summary: Simeon is the KND's healer, and he is well respected, though being well past decomissioning age. What the KND don't know is that he is concealing a terrible secret, as well as his own dark past...
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Wish I owned KND because then I'd be able to afford my own clothes with the profits, but that is sadly not the case (and that doesn't mean I go around naked, you fools. It just means I have to rely on my mother's absolutely abysmal sense of fashion)  
  
Note Bene: I was plotbunnied! Blame the evil plot bunnies, they made me do this!  
  
---  
  
It was dark and I was cold. I wouldn't usually be outside at night in the middle of winter but I'd had a row with my parents again ending up with my mother screaming that she wished I'd never been born. Such a sweet tempered woman.  
  
I've had enough. I've got a blanket and all my savings with me, as well as some stuff I nicked from the fridge. I don't want to see them ever again. I hate them.  
  
And him. I hate him even more than I hate them. He came in to my room last night. He told me he'd heard me crying. In my sleep. He put his face right up close to mine and told me he'd heard me whimpering. I've had enough. I want out.  
  
They're playing loud music two blocks over. I think it's the Katz family. They've got two daughters, twins they are, who are in the KND though I forget where they're posted.  
  
I'm never going back. Never. They can get the police to look for me, I don't care. I'm staying over at the treehouse. At least in my bedroom there no one can hear me whimpering. I have a reason to whimper. And it's nothing to do with him. He's just a factor that makes it worse.  
  
I hate him. I hate him so much. He was always the favourite. He was always the shining example in my mother's eyes and my father's pride. Why didn't they love me like they loved him? Because he followed their footsteps. I didn't. He was always sycophantic, sucking up to adults. I said hello out of politeness that I didn't feel.  
  
As I stormed past the Nature Reserve I heard a howl. Odd. There aren't many wolves around here, not even in the Reserve. I shrugged it away. Probably a stray dog.  
  
I hate him. Say I'm consumed. I don't care anymore. I don't care what happens to me. I'm not worth anything anyway. No one cares. Huh.  
  
Medicine is the only thing I'm good at but they will never pay for me to go to a university to learn it so I may as well put myself out of my misery. I hate them all.  
  
The howl rung across the otherwise silent night again. Without quite realising why, I glanced up.  
  
The full moon stood out prominently in the night sky. 


	2. The healer

Simeon was on call. He was always on call, it was the story of his life. He didn't mind because he felt needed. He had been in the Kids Next Door for, what, 14 years? At 23 he was hardly a kid but still... this was his home...  
  
And everyone had been so supportive... 10 years ago, when he had turned 13, they had let him stay on. Why? Because they knew he had nowhere else to go. 5 years ago, at 18, they had funded his university education through the Kids Next Door account. Even now everyone accepted him. Except Numbuh 86, the head of decommissioning, who, it seemed, was desperate to get his name on the list of people she had decommissioned.  
  
But then, even she had benefited from his services after three particularly nasty missions when he had patched her up. She had to admit – grudgingly, of course – that his expertise had, on more than one occasion, saved her life.  
  
The majority of the kids trusted him, he knew that. He trusted them, too. Every new leader that was appointed after the decommissioning of the previous one (Numbuh 362 was the current global leader) accepted his work. He did not charge wages, living off the KND account as he did. All he required was a day off. Once a month. Every month.  
  
He sighed and, leaning heavily on his walking staff, made his way to the emergency vehicle that was waiting for him to take him down to the accident zone.  
  
---  
  
Simeon was in high bad temper as he casually flicked his greying hair out of his face. That idiot Numbuh Four had gone against team co-operation regulations and had somehow managed to get himself run over by a large number of pianos. And to cap it all off, Simeon was beginning to feel rather peaky himself. Surely it wasn't that time already?  
  
August was fast approaching. It was the middle of the summer holidays and that was, apparently, incentive for kids everywhere to attempt to kill themselves by going on dangerous missions.  
  
"Simeon. At last. I've been looking for you." Simeon recognised the voice even though he couldn't see the accompanying face. He inclined his head towards the sound.  
  
"Numbuh 362." He responded coldly, silently wishing she could have chosen another time to find him. He needed a drink, preferably something strong. She ignored his less-than-warm welcome.  
  
"It seems that The Idiot has unleashed a piano on his team mates." She informed him. He did not have to ask who "The Idiot" was. "We think it was revenge for them appointing a hamster to replace him while he was indisposed. According to Numbuh One," she added bitterly, "he has an allergy to cute fluffy things, the regulation treehouse hamsters included."  
  
"I'm on my way." The healer answered, turning around and limping back down the corridor he had just come along. He'd only just returned from The Idiot's treehouse and now he had to go bandage up the whole team because of The Idiot's aversion to hamsters? He smiled, but it was without humour.  
  
The Idiot was annoying enough but at least he still had his day off to look forward to.  
  
Once a month. Every month. 


End file.
